


Accidentally in Love

by colour_outside_the_lines



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Angst, Drama, Drama & Romance, Eventual Romance, F/M, Family, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Friends to Lovers, Friendship/Love, Heartbreak, Hogwarts Sixth Year, Romance, Slow Build, Slow Burn, Slow Romance, Teenage Drama
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-05-07
Updated: 2020-05-07
Packaged: 2021-03-03 05:47:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,470
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24059959
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/colour_outside_the_lines/pseuds/colour_outside_the_lines
Summary: The cries of Filthy Mudblood faded into nothingness as she got further and further away from the kitchen. Soon they became mere whispers in her mind, mixing together with other words of hurt that she had heard that night, to create a heartbreaking cocktail she couldn't avoid.ORWhen Ron breaks up with Hermione, she runs to her best friend for comfort : HR/H / set during HBP
Relationships: Hermione Granger/Harry Potter
Comments: 14
Kudos: 21





	Accidentally in Love

**Au set during Sixth Year, what would happen if Ron and Hermione dated from the end of fourth year but broke up the summer before their sixth year, Hermione turns to Harry for comfort.**

**Title for the fic comes from the song _Accidentally In Love_ by Counting Crows.**

**I DON'T OWN ANYTHING RELATED TO HARRY POTTER**

* * *

**How much longer will it take to cure this, just to cure it cause I can't ignore it if it's love, makes me want to turn around and face me but I don't know nothing 'bout love- _Counting Crows, Accidentally in Love_**

* * *

**One**

The air outside held the distinct smell that came directly after a rainstorm in the South of England. A light, late summer time breeze weaved its way through Hermione's thick, brown hair, blowing it in front of her eyes and obscuring her vision ever so slightly. Dark grey, stormy clouds still loomed over their heads, threatening to bring another onslaught of rain any second now. She couldn't help but think that the weather and sky were extremely fitting for how she currently felt.

She looked down at the contents of the tea left over in her almost full cup, the sweet liquid had long since gone cold as the temperature around them had started to dip, bringing with it a slight chill as night time drew close. For years now, a simple cup of tea had been something of a source of comfort for Hermione.

Whether she was curled up with a book in front of a roaring fire, watching a film with her family, or simply winding down for the night after a particularly long day. She was a firm believer in the powers that a cup of tea held, and she wouldn't have anyone else say any different. They had always worked for her, no matter what she had been going through at the time.

Though now, even the one thing that she had always found the most comfort in, was doing seldom to make her feel better. All she wanted now was for something to numb this feeling. Her heart ached, and left a dull, heavy feeling deep in the pit of her stomach, as a lump began to inch it's way up her throat, creeping higher and higher.

She took a deep breath, in through her nose and out through her mouth, trying her hardest to calm herself down and steady her thoughts. She closed her eyes and tilted her head back slightly, allowing it to rest against the brickwork of Number Twelve, Grimmauld Place, with a gentle, quiet thud.

Everything around them was quiet, save for the sound of the rustling of the trees and the light pattering of rain as another downpour started, she was thankful where they were sitting protected them from the rain. She wasn't exactly sure of how they ended up where they were now, or what exactly had gone wrong in their conversation that led them to where they were currently. All she knew was that it had happened, it had happened so quickly and suddenly that she wasn't sure if there was anything she could do or say to change it now that it had happened.

"So… we're really doing this then?" Hermione asked, her voice barely even above a whisper. It felt wrong to be any louder than a whisper, almost as if any noise the might make would betray the stillness of the night air, bringing everything crashing down around them.

Much like their relationship.

Ron nodded his head slowly, "Yeah… we really are," He replied, his voice flat, and devoid of any real emotion, so unlike Hermione had ever heard it in all the years that she had known him.

She let out a long, deep sigh, her heart pounding hard in her chest as the gravity of the situation at hand finally settled in. Though they hadn't been together long, a little over a year to be more exact, she hadn't expected there to be a day when they wouldn't be together. She had just thought that they'd be _it_ for each other.

The same way that Mr. and Mrs. Weasley were, they'd met at Hogwarts when they were younger, and had started their relationship at sixteen, and had been together ever since. Just like her parents, they'd met at university at eighteen, and had been together ever since.

She wanted that. She wanted that with Ron.

She had met him at eleven-years-old and had been instantly drawn to him, she hadn't been able to explain it at the time, but there had been something about him that drew her near.

Whenever they were together, there was a palpable tension in the air, at first, she had thought that it was because they were a friendship made of convenience, brought together through a mutual friend, and a near death experience.

Then, when she was fourteen-years-old, she had fully realised the magnitude of those feelings and what they had meant. It had clicked in her head one night, when she and the other Gryffindor fourth year girls, were talking about their crushes late one night in the common room.

It hit her like a blow from the Whomping willow, hard and out of nowhere.

She liked Ronald Weasley, she had always liked him.

She had told him, not long after her realisation, and their relationship had started from there, over time, through the nurturing of their relationship, that feeling had blossomed into love.

Even at sixteen, she had believed that they would be together, and just, _stay_ together. That much she had been sure of. It wasn't often that Hermione Granger was wrong, and on the odd occasion that she was, she never liked to admit it. But this time, she didn't really have any other choice.

Her relationship with Ron had ended, on his say so, and as much as it may hurt her to think about that, maybe some things, as perfect as they may appear on the surface, simply didn't last forever.

"I'm sorry," He offered her his apology with a small shrug of his shoulders, the sincerity of his words evident in the tone of his voice. "I am so sorry, Hermione, really I am."

"I know you are," She replied, her voice cracking slightly as she felt the bitter, cruel sting of tears burning in her dark eyes. "But that doesn't make this any easier for me to take in, or to accept." She admitted in a whisper, trying her hardest to hold herself together.

As much as she loved him, and as much as this was tearing her up inside, she wasn't going to let him see her cry. That was something she had always been good at; whenever somebody had hurt her in the past, she had always saved her tears for when they were no longer around. She had always made a point of not allowing others to see how much they had hurt her with their words or actions.

She wasn't about to go and change that now.

"I just… I really think that this is what's best for us," He shrugged, "For now at least," There was a beat of silence before Ron spoke again, "I love you, I really do, but… I just don't think that we fit as a couple right now- not like we used to, anyway."

"Not like we used to?" Hermione asked, "Since when? And what do you mean _right now_?" She asked, "Everything has been going fine, we're happy, what changed that so suddenly? Just last week you were telling me how much you loved me and now you're saying this? Why tell me that you love me if you were going to do this?" Her words came out slightly choked as she fought against the tears trying desperately to spill over her eyes.

"Because I meant everything that I said, I really did, I still do," He sighed, "It's just hard for me to explain I guess," He shrugged his shoulders slightly and shook his head slowly, almost like he couldn't believe what was happening. "I wish I could explain it to you, but I can't."

Hermione shook her at the red-haired boy, her eyebrows knitting over her brown eyes, "Don't sit there and say that you can't explain this to me. You clearly have a real reason for why you don't think that we fit anymore when just last week you thought we did." He dipped his head slightly, hiding his face from her view, and cleared his throat. "How long have you felt like this?"

Hermione had always been good at reading people, at seeing the none-verbal signs of communication, especially when it came to her relationship and friendship with Ron. He had never needed to say anything, she always knew how he was feeling.

Just like now, he didn't need to tell her that he had been feeling this way for longer than just tonight. She knew, from the fact that he couldn't look at her, the uncomfortable shift in his body language, and the clearing of his throat, that he had wanted to do this for some time.

"A while," He replied, lifting his head to look at her once more, he could see from the tension in Hermione's jaw, the deep crease in her forehead, and the coldness behind her eyes that she wanted more than just that. "I've felt like it since we left Hogwarts for the summer."

"That long and you didn't tell me?"

"I wanted to try and make this work, I thought that maybe we were just in a rough patch, or more specifically, I was in a rough patch. I thought that we could work through this, like we work through everything." He took a deep breath and reached a hand out to take hold of Hermione's. The dark haired girl pulled her hand away from his harshly.

"Why not just talk to me about it?" She asked, her voice soft.

"Because we've never had to talk about stuff in the past, we just always fix it. Even before we were a couple we'd argue like one and we would always work things out and make our friendship work. I thought that, maybe, we could do the same again now."

"And when exactly did you realise that we couldn't fix this?" She asked.

"The week after you got here," He admitted, his words coming out as an ashamed mumble as the truth of how long he had kept things going despite his feelings was now out in the open. "I had hoped that seeing you again would fix everything, especially after we'd had some space. I really wanted to make sure that we actually tried to make it work rather than just calling it quits at the first sign of trouble. But I can't keep it going any longer."

"Oh, well thank you for telling me when you did, because to keep this going any longer would just be cruel," Hermione replied sardonically. Ron furrowed his eyebrows at the brown-haired girl.

His blue eyes, locked with her brown ones, and for the first time, she saw that his eyes, that were once so magnetic whenever he looked at her, were filled with the same sadness and hurt that she herself was feeling.

"I didn't mean to hurt you, Hermione, I never wanted that. I still don't want that."

She knew that he meant it, as angry and as hurt as she was; she knew that Ron meant those words. He wasn't a callous or cruel person, he never had been. He was one of the nicest people that she knew, he had never done anything to intentionally hurt anyone.

"Yeah, I know," She replied, nodding her head slowly, "I do know that, Ron. I just wish that you'd told me all of this sooner, like maybe when I first got here and you first felt this way, rather than a few days before we have to go back to school."

"I should have told you sooner, I know I should have, but I didn't want to quit on us if we could be saved." There was a moment of silence, as he took a deep breath and ran a hand through his ginger hair. "I'm sorry."

Though there was still so much left unsaid between them, there seemed to be a finality in his last apology, not in his tone, but in the air, hanging between them, separating them more than Ron just had. The conversation was over, as were they, and there was nothing that she could do to change that.

Maybe that's what hurt her so much, there was no point in fighting for them, there was nothing to fight for, Ron had made that clear. No one needed to change or fix anything they had done, they hadn't fought, no one needed to apologise, the relationship had simply ended. No matter how much love there might be between them, the relationship was finished.

She pushed herself up from where she was sitting and looked down at the red-haired boy where he sat. She gave him a soft smile. "I love you," She whispered, her words getting lost in the midst of the wind and rain.

She wasn't even sure if he had heard her until he nodded his head slowly, "I know, I love you, too." He replied, once again reaching his hand out to take Hermiones, this time she took his hand in hers and squeezed it gently, the same way she always did, before dropping it.

His words hung in the air between them, as she walked away, heading back into the large house that she had called her home for the last three weeks. A house that held so many great memories for her.

A house that would now be tainted with this moment. It would always be tainted with this moment. Her first feeling of true heartbreak, caused by her first love, a love that she had hoped would be her last, too.

Ron was her first real anything, her first kiss, her first relationship… her _first_ , they had shared so much together, and she had truly thought they would continue to have so many firsts together. She was only sixteen but she hadn't prepared for the event of a break-up. She had never thought there would be one.

She headed straight up to her room, ignoring the angry slurs spat at her from Kreacher's mouth. The cries of _Filthy Mudblood_ faded into nothingness as she got further and further away from the kitchen. Soon they became mere whispers in her mind, mixing together with other words of hurt that she had heard that night, to create a heartbreaking cocktail she couldn't avoid.


End file.
